News and Notes

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 10, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 10.

FOREIGN

—The twentieth anniversary of the coronation of Pope Leo XIII. was celebrated in the throne room at the Vatican on March 2.

—Señor Campos Salles has been elected president of Brazil by a large majority. Señor Rosa Silva was elected vice-president. There was no disorder.

—Severe weather is reported from Northern Persia. More than one hundred persons have perished in snow drifts on the high road between Resht and Teheran.

—Turkey is now considering the possibilities of war with Russia over the backing which Russia is supposed to be giving Bulgaria. An extraordinary ministerial council has been summoned at Constantinople.

—On February 26 two would-be assassins attempted to take the life of King George of Greece. Nine shots were fired at him at close range, but all went wide of their intended mark. Both the assailants have been arrested.

—Germany has two more grievances to settle with China. A German missionary has been robbed and severely beaten in Kwangtung province, and a German sentry was nearly beheaded by an enraged Chinaman at Kaiouchau recently.

—The greatest anxiety in Havana at the present time seems to be over the threatened uprising of the volunteers against the captain-general and his council. The cause of the trouble is over the decision of Blanco to disarm the volunteers.

—It is reported from Cuba that the Spanish have suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of General Garcia at Holguin. The battle lasted five days, and it is estimated that nearly one thousand were killed and wounded in the engagement.

—The British steamer Legislator, which sailed from Liverpool for Colon on February 3, took fire at sea and became a total loss. Six of her crew perished in the disaster, and the remainder were rescued and brought to Boston by the steamer Flower Gate.

—A succession of severe earthquakes has occurred on the island of Montserrat, in the West Indies, lasting from the 15th to the 20th of February. The entire population of the island has been thrown into consternation, and much distress prevails in consequence.

—A correspondent of the London Times states that there is appalling scarcity of food in many provinces of Spain, and that the price of wheat is unprecedentedly high. Bread riots are of daily occurrence at Salamanca, and it is feared that martial law will be proclaimed.

—The condition of affairs between Nicaragua and Costa Rica continues to grow more serious, and is arousing considerable apprehension in official circles. It is said to threaten to involve not only those two countries in war, but also to draw all the Central American republics into armed conflict.

—The German Reichstag has adopted a portion of Emperor William’s naval bill, thereby providing for a considerable increase in the navy, which will have one flag-ship, eighteen large battle-ships, twelve large cruisers, thirty small cruisers, and a large number of ironclads, torpedo-boats, gunboats, etc.

—Haiti had barely paid Germany’s damage claim at the point of German guns, when Italy brought forward a claim for damages to certain of her subjects. These damages have barely been paid when France presents a claim for damages to certain of her citizens for the alleged violation of treaty rights.

—A despatch from Singapore states that the French gunboat Lion will sail for Hai-Nan on March 10, taking troops for occupation. It is also reported that a company of French marines have landed in Southern China, 240 miles southwest of Hongkong, and informed the Chinese that they intend to erect buildings.

—Foreign newspaper correspondents in Paris who reported the progress of the Zola trial have been warned that it is advisable for them to leave France. A chaplain who congratulated Zola has been placed on the unattached list; the professor of the Polytechnic School has been retired for indorsing Zola’s action; and Colonel Picquart, who testified in Zola’s defense, has been cashiered.

—Recent reports from Algeria indicate that the anti-Jewish riots there during the latter part of January were of a much more serious and disgraceful nature than the reports at first intimated. Large numbers of Jewish stores were burned to the ground, men and women were killed and maltreated in the streets of Algiers, and the police and military were powerless to render adequate protection to the Hebrews.

—The English Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, celebrates its two-hundredth anniversary this year, having been founded March 8, 1698. It was the first society, it is said, to care for the religious education of the poor, the first to send missionaries to India, the first to circulate wholesome literature at home and abroad, and the first to undertake the translation of the Bible and prayer-book into foreign languages.

—The Government of Spain is casting about to devise some way of raising the necessary money to enable her to increase her navy from ships now completed and offered for sale. The import and export monopoly on mineral oils will be sold at auction for this purpose on March 28. It is reported that she has already raised sufficient money to purchase the three Chilian war vessels which have been on sale in England for a year past.

DOMESTIC

—By the burning of a tenement house in Charleston, S. C., on February 26, nine of the inmates lost their lives.

—It has been decided to hold the next World’s Sunday-school Convention in London, England, July 11–15, 1898.

—The Supreme Court of Georgia has wiped out the prohibition laws of that State, thus throwing down the bars to the liquor men.

—During the present month a general council of all the various temperance organizations of the State of Washington will be held in Seattle.

—The Spanish cruiser Vizcaya, which recently paid a visit to New York, arrived in Havana on the morning of March 1, and was received with enthusiastic demonstrations.

—Simultaneously bills have been introduced in the Legislatures of New York and Iowa, making it a misdemeanor to “treat” any person to liquor in any saloon, barroom, or club-room.

—The resolution recently introduced in Congress, appropriating a sum of money for the erection of a memorial tablet in the Capitol to commemorate the loss of the Maine and the death of those who went down with her, was passed by the Senate on March 1. The tablet will bear the names of all who lost their lives in that memorable disaster.

—The lumber bark Canada and the steamer Cottage City have been wrecked within the past week upon the coast of Southeastern Alaska.

—The excess of the government’s receipts over expenditures for the month of February amount to $1,845,358, the first surplus which this month has shown for a number of years.

—The U. S. cruiser Montgomery and the gunboat Nashville have been commissioned to proceed to the ports of Matanzas and Segua la Grande, in northern Cuba, with provisions for the starving reconcentrados.

—A contract was entered into at Washington, on March 1, between the War Department and the representatives of three steel companies for $1,000,000 worth of projectiles to be delivered as soon as possible.

—By an explosion in the Hall Chemical Laboratory at Kalamazoo, Mich., on February 26, ten persons are known to have lost their lives. It is believed that others also who are among the missing were killed.

—The special train conveying the recently imported reindeer, left Jersey City for Seattle, Wash., on the night of March 1. The train consisted of fifteen cars. There were 113 persons in the party, and 529 reindeer.

—The large loss of life in the big fire at Pittsburg, Penn., on February 9, is attributed to an explosion of whisky. Twelve bodies were recovered, but it was supposed that a number perished whose remains were never found.

—General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, recently visited the cities of Oakland and San Francisco. At Oakland he was welcomed by the mayor in the name of the city and received with marked courtesy—an incident which shows how the Army has grown in public favor in a few short years.

—The Women’s Temple trustees of Chicago have made an appeal to the general public for assistance in raising the debt which hangs over the W. C. T. U. building of that city. After the liquidation of the debt the building will be named the “Willard Temple,” as a monument to Miss Frances E. Willard.

—Dr. Jennie Taylor Gordon, of Mechanicsburg, Penn., niece of Bishop William Taylor, a missionary for several years in West Africa, died at her post at Malange, in Angola, on December 29, after four years of faithful medical missionary work in that field.

—A resolution was introduced in the House of Representatives on February 28 authorizing the appropriation of $20,000,000 to be available for the purchase of war vessels of the various classes now in use in the navies of the world. The resolution has not yet been acted upon.

—The last rites over the body of Miss Frances E. Willard, late president of the World’s W. C. T. U., were performed at Evanston, Illinois, on Thursday, February 24. The city was in mourning, schools and business houses closed, and flags put at half mast out of respect for the dead leader.

—Reports from Alaska state that an epidemic of cerebro-spinal meningitis has broken out at Skaguay, and that many deaths occur daily from this peculiar disease. These advices also state that many of the miners who have attempted to go in over the passes lately have frozen to death on the trails.

—The War Department has decided to abandon its Klondike relief expedition, because the conclusion has been reached that no necessity now exists for it. The Secretary has asked permission to dispose of the supplies intended for that purpose, and also of the train-load of reindeer now in transit.

—The twenty-ninth annual report of the Board of Indian Commissioners has been submitted to Secretary Bliss. The report states that in the general condition of the Indians no important changes have occurred, but that there is evidence of steady progress in industrial pursuits and in education.

—Thomas A. Edison, the famous electrician, has discovered a process for the extraction of gold from ore without the use of water. His engineers are now in New Mexico for the purpose of developing extensive mines which it has not been possible to operate heretofore on account of the lack of water. The discovery is regarded as a very important one by those interested in quartz mining.

—Members of the Jewish congregations of San Francisco, Cal., have organized a society to be known as “Helpers of Zion,” the object of which is to encourage and financially aid the colonization of Palestine by those Jews who have been unable to assimilate with the inhabitants of countries to which they have emigrated.

—The U. S. monitor Terror arrived in New York harbor, from Hampton Roads, on the morning of February 28. It is expected that the Navy Department will keep her there on account of the fears recently aroused by the presence of the Vizcaya in the harbor of that city, while no American war vessels were in the vicinity.

—The decision of the attorney-general of Missouri against the reading of the Bible in the public schools has started a movement in opposition to his decision. The leaders of this movement will demand that a few verses of the Bible be read in the public schools every day, and that each school child be taught at least the Ten Commandments.

—The court of inquiry appointed to investigate the cause of the Maine disaster has finished its work at Key West and it is expected to resume its work at Havana. Rumors of various degrees of plausibility are in the air in regard to the cause of the wreck, but no official report of findings has yet been given the public. A self-appointed commission of five representatives and senators has sailed for Cuba in a private yacht to investigate conditions in the stricken island. Active preparation for emergencies at the various points of probable attack, in case of war, continue unabated, and large shipments have been made of ammunition and projectiles to the fortifications along the Atlantic Coast, while gun emplacements are being hurried to completion, and gun factories are reported to be working night and day. It is believed, even by the conservative, that the administration is preparing for war.